But what gets me about the news of the depopification of the catholic church by natural causes is that the man is being celebrated because he “took on the Soviet regime and emboldened eastern Europeans to bring down the communist system.”

Um, yeah. Because you know the Roman Catholic church is all about freeing the common man from the oppressor.

Why so bitter? Well, I grew up Catholic. Oh, and I’ve spent a lot of time cultivating the ability to think for myself and to question authority. A combination of those two will bring about bitterness every time.

I can hear people now: “but JPII was a good soul, he was a great man.” Perhaps. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never met him, I’ve never felt his soul energy. What I do know is that while he was in office, he upheld ridiculous, atavistic policies that don’t make any sense at all. The Catholic Church is still against birth control, when things like AIDS are floating around. The Catholic Church is still anti-choice, when the issue is far too complicated for any sort of systematic policy to address. The Catholic Church remains one of the largest political structures that systematically oppresses women. He ignored and suppressed a horrific epidemic of pedophelia in the US, a cancer that festered within the organization he is responsible for. All of these policies were upheld under JPII’s watch.

So yeah. Maybe he was a great man. What do I know.

May he rest in peace, and may the next pope be more forward-thinking. The Roman Catholic church is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and JPII presided over much of that trend.